AoOO Thoughs

[alixtii]

1. I understand "Choose Not to Warn for Some Content" as meaning that, if no other warnings are selected, then there is a nonzero number of primary standardized warnings which don't apply to the story (most likely noncon)--because if all of them applied, and the author didn't warn for all of them, then the phrase "Choose Not to Warn [full stop]" comment would apply and, in accordance with Grice's Maxim of Quantity, the author would have used that tag.

Apparently, not everyone shares this understanding.

2. I'm very uncomfortable with the implication, given by the existence of the primary warning tag "noncon/rape," that dubcon isn't rape. "Rape," as the term is used more or less uniquely in contemporary usage, is a legal-ethical concept: it identifies a certain type of illicit sexual activity. "Noncon" and "dubcon" pull out certain aspects of these acts which are relevant to the needs of fanfic readers and writers, but not to a legal or ethical understanding, and involves knowledge unavailable to people who are not omniscient narrators (e.g., the precise mental state of the victim, and what what that state would have been in other circumstances). But any circumstance in which consent is in any way dubious--whether through the use of alien influence, or power imbalances, or social pressure, or drugs or alcohol, or through not being of legal age--is rape. Period.

"Noncon" and "dubcon" identify out types of rape, in much the same way the term "statutory rape" does. (ETA: Actually, they don't even do that, I think; they measure something which is on completely different axis than what "rape" measures. It just happens that there is an incredibly huge degree of correlation.)

Now, one doesn't have to read the "noncon/rape" tag as implying that "noncon" and "rape" or synonymous or equivalent. But if not, the meaning is ambiguous: does it cover for cases which are "noncon AND rape" (but not dubcon) or cases which are "noncon OR rape" (which would include dubcon). ("Noncon XOR rape" can be safely ruled out.) Praxis seems to support the first usage as being dominant, but I think this somehow covertly encourages the (problematic equivalence between the two terms discussed above. (And both usages are fundamentally redundant, because "noncon AND rape" = "noncon" and "noncon OR rape" = "rape.")

And, continuing to read the post linked above, I'm not the only who has thought of this (not that I had assumed I was).

Comments

Re: (another head from metafandom)

[boosette]

The inclusion of the word rape in the warning label now implies that all types of rape are covered - which is why I see it as a matter of adding "dubcon" rather than removing "rape".

Re: (another head from metafandom)

[alixtii]

I'm not sure what you mean by "implies"--because maybe it does in some formal sense, but a majority of people using the tag seem to be walking away from it with a different inference, IME.

TpvCzZciwopg

[(Anonymous)]

LukeW August 22nd, 2011 1:57 pm @Ian what information? Your name or usnreame? Cause that's what Facebook, Google+, Gowalla, Quora, Twitter, Bagcheck, etc, etc do. They have PUBLIC profile pages. You can choose what you show on these pages but joining the service creates a public page for you. That's what happens when you sign up (which is your choice). @Kevin that's still a good best practice but in the case of a service like Twitter (or any service with public user names that allows you to log in with usnreame & password), it's a moot point. Anyone can see there is an account with the usnreame by searching, browsing, etc. on the site. So the only part that's unknown is the password.Same thing is true for Facebook. Type an email address into the search field at the top of any Facebook page and you will find the user with that email address on the site.Just between the Twitter (200M accounts) and Facebook (750M accounts) examples, there's 950 million accounts in this insecure state you are concerned about.I'm NOT saying public profile pages are for every site on the Internet. But for the sites that have them they already have the level of insecurity you are describing. It is NOT an artifact of any of these log in page designs.Hope that clarifies things?